Fast and Furious: Where is the outrage?

Arizonans don't need me to tell them that Fast and Furious is a big story.

Our state is once again a middleman caught in another debacle under this administration.

This scandal started in our backyard - in the ATF's Phoenix office - and was administered by a U.S. attorney appointed by President Barack Obama.

Every step of this operation seems riddled with incompetence and dishonesty.

High-ranking U.S. officials used taxpayer money - stimulus money, no less - to buy guns and ship them to Mexico. The administration claims these firearms were shipped to Mexico in an attempt to destabilize Mexican drug cartels.

A further investigation will help us determine if, in fact, the administration's real agenda was actually promoting gun control.

Not only did this incompetence sink the operation, it strengthened the cartels and destabilized Mexican security forces on the border.

In other words, under this then-secret program, thousands of guns were shipped over our borders and placed directly and into the hands of criminals. Sadly, these guns can be traced to over 200 murders, including that of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and high-ranking Mexican officials.

Some have tried to say that Fast and Furious is simply a case of an overreaching federal government dropping the ball or botching an operation - that it was planned to do something different, that weapons were lost, and officials miscommunicated or were ill-informed.

However, as more evidence comes to light, it is clear this operation was not botched. The administration fully intended for guns to end up in the hands of Mexican criminals.

As an Arizonan watching this unfold in my backyard, I can also assure you this is more than feds dropping the ball. People are dying. American tax dollars are arming criminals, and it seems the administration is trying to cover it up.

This is egregious.

Almost as egregious is the fact that the mainstream media has largely seemed to ignore this scandal. Where is the media's understanding of the scale of this operation? Where is the outrage for not only the actions of President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, but for their inconsistent stories? Where is the outrage for the use of American tax dollars for criminal activity? Where is the outrage for the more than 200 lives lost?

There is a growing voice in the House, mine being one of the strongest among them, that believes we need a special prosecutor to hold Holder and the Justice Department accountable. We must put the facts together and properly lay them out on a timeline.

Let's face it. If it turns out that our attorney general misled the House Oversight Committee in May, the honorable thing for him to do is tender his resignation.

The truth of this operation must come out just as fast and furiously as it was withheld from us.

The main duty of our government is to protect its citizens. However, here in our backyard, taxpayer-funded weapons have taken lives. I do not know what else needs to be said for America to start listening.

David Schweikert is a U.S. congressman representing Arizona's District 5 in the East and Northeast Valley.